Sydney drives home prices up 10 per cent

Australian capital city house prices lifted 2.2 per cent in the March quarter.

Home prices across Australia's capital cities have risen an average of 10.2 per cent in the year to March 2017, driven by Sydney's strong property market.

The Harbour city led the pack with an average annual home price lift of 14.4 per cent, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

Melbourne was only just behind recording an annual increase of 13.4 per cent.

Hobart was also a strong performer, with an increase of 11.3 per cent for the year, and lifting 3.4 per cent in the March quarter, the highest quarterly rise of all the capitals.

Meanwhile, Darwin and Perth had the weakest outcomes, being the only two cities to post a fall in prices in both the March quarter and the year to March.

Darwin slipped 5.9 per cent for the year while Perth dropped 3.5 per cent.

The were both also lower for the quarter, down 0.9 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively.

Overall, residential property prices rose 2.2 per cent in the March quarter, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth.

The ABS figures found the total value of Australia's roughly 9.9 million residential dwellings rose $163.1 billion in the quarter to $6.6 trillion, only six months after reaching the $6 trillion mark in September last year.

The mean house price in Australia stands at around $670,000.

NSW ($886,800) remains at the top of the country for the mean house price, followed by Victoria ($708,300), with Tasmania ($357,000) recording the lowest mean price for the March quarter.